David & Gladys Chang

David grew up in a conservative Christian home, but rebelled in his early teens and had little desire to serve Christ. By God’s grace, and through the persistent prayers of his parents and youth leaders, David came into contact with Christian musicians who were passionate for the gospel. David recommitted his life to Jesus, and he began to reach the youths in his surrounding culture. David responded to God’s call to “go and disciple the nations” during a mission trip to East Asia. After graduating from Temple University with a degree in music, David went to Thailand as an associate with OMF for three years.

Gladys was born in the Philippines, and came to faith in Christ when she first went to work in Singapore. In 1994, during a conference held in Grace Baptist Church, she heard God’s call and committed herself to be a missionary. The Lord led her into full-time studies at Singapore Bible College, where she became more convinced of her life-calling through living in a cross-cultural environment.

David and Gladys met in Singapore Bible College and were married in December 2000. They came to Thailand with OMF in August 2003 to start work among the urban poor in Bangkok. David is currently the OMF Regional Leader of Bangkok. He is involved in preaching in Thai churches and mentoring younger missionaries and church leaders. They now have five children (including triplets). David holds a M.Div and Th.M in missiology.

Bangkok is one of the mega-cities in East Asia. The spiritual needs of the 10 million people in this city are enormous. Most Thai Buddhists have never even heard of the amazing news of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. David and Gladys desire to see God’s name glorified among the unreached people in Bangkok. As OMF regional leaders, they see opportunities for new workers to join a variety of ministries in Bangkok. After studying the Thai language, workers can come to this city and begin by praying, identifying a target people group, building friendships, serving, and proclaiming the gospel. There are also opportunities for church planting within a team setting. Some teams consists of other missionaries, some partner with Thai churches to plant daughter churches. For those who stay for the long term, they can invest their lives in next generation Thai leaders who will impact this country for Christ. Would you seriously consider how God may want you to participate in His mission in Bangkok?

In February, we bought our banana tree. “When will it have bananas?” I asked the shop owner. “After about a year and a half;” she answered. At that point, I was noticing that it only had three leaves; with one of them turning brown already. Ewoud planted the tree in our garden and at first...

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We came to a noodle shop and general store, and there we found Uanbu sitting at a table. We sat down to talk with him, as Theerachai shared the prodigal son story, using an OMF poster-preaching flipbook with big illustrations of key points in the parable. After twenty minutes or so, Uanbu was still hungry...

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As a missionary in Thailand, I’ve been asked all kinds of questions. “Why do you come to Thailand?” “How much do you earn?” “Are you married?” “You mean you don’t have any children?” Even though I’ve just said that I was not married! Recently, one of my students asked me: “Are you a ‘Tom’”? Ouch!!...

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Phrom Khiri (pronounced Prome Keeree). It’s a beautiful district in the southern Thai province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. It’s made up of five sub-districts and has a population of over 35,000 people. It’s a place full of fruit orchards, including mangosteen and durian. It’s surrounded by beautiful mountains and waterfalls. It’s known for having fresh...